From Craigslist to FEI

We really enjoyed our time at Haras for the recognized show in February so when I went looking for schooling shows and saw this one (on a Friday no less!) I packed the boys up and recruited Alex and Sarah to come play with me at this show. Sarah's punishment was to ride THREE tests while I lounged around and rode my first PSG test.

Susan Mandas was the judge and I've show to her before while riding Simon and looking like a sack of potatoes. Well maybe not THAT bad, but it wasn't the glory that is me now. *cough Susan is a super fair judge, but she's also a really experienced "S" judge and grand prix competitor so I knew going in that we weren't about to get the sometimes inflated schooling show scores we tend to get elsewhere.

Sarah rode 2-1, 1-2, and 2-3 on Simon and hit scores well over 60% and looked really good. It was a good day for Sarah and she learned a lot I think. We had someone fly down to try Simon and he packed their teenage daughter around the warmup like a champ and they looked great together. Having people try the grey unicorn makes my heart so happy when I can see how kind he is with them but still responsive and eager to do their bidding.

Sarah was late arriving so we made her run and get the gate. Muahaha.

Heading for the first ride.

Looking fancy.

I rode Vana last for the day and after chilling out on the trailer all day, he was READY to go. Dragon mode activated! We rode in the outdoor arena and he was pumped plus spooky so I knew I was in for quite the ride. We kept it all in the ring and aside from a temper tantrum about me insisting that he do his pirouettes decently and do the correct count on tempis, we made it through pretty well if not a little expressive. We also did some passage on the way out because, well, passage is fun and he tends to not do it "on demand" when in the show ring with me so I took advantage of the schooling show to do that. Our score for the first time out was a 57% I believe so I was pretty impressed considering the judge and my doofus dragon.

When I came out, we did the trial ride with Simon and the people from Dallas and then packed everything up and headed home! Super relaxing and fun day of schooling the ponies and people! And as always, so fun to see the Lusitanos doing their thing.